Bracket type mounting device for a lamp casing



H. RIEGLER Sept. 28, 1965 BRACKET TYPE MOUNTING DEVICE FOR A LAMP CASING 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR Harald Pie ler M a w O ATTYS.

H. RIEGLER Sept. 28, 1965 BRACKET TYPE MOUNTING DEVICE FOR A LAMP CASING Filed April 15, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR Ha ra 1d Rz'cgle r ZQ Q 72 026,

United States Patent 4 Claims. 61. 248318) This invention relates to a bracket type mounting device including a fixing screw having a head and a threaded shaft for securing a lamp casing to a ceiling or a pendulum suspended therefrom.

Generally such mounting devices are in the form of a slotted washer to be used with a fixing screw which has to be screwed directly into the ceiling or the lower end of the lamp pendulum, respectively, before the lamp casing is passed over the screw head by a central opening and provisionally secured in position by inserting the slotted washer between the screw head and the sheet metal surrounding the central opening of the lamp casing, the outer diameter of the slotted washer being larger than the clear width of the central opening in the lamp casing. Subsequently, when the fixing screw is tightened, the lamp casing will be fixed to the support and thus finally secured in position.

Mounting devices of the slotted washer type can be used with lamps in which the electrical connection can be established within the lamp casing but they are not adapted for use with lamps requiring the electrical connection to be effected outside the lamp casing and the latter to be accessible from above, for in this case a second person would be needed to hold the lamp while the electrician connects the cables. To render one-man installation possible also with this type of lamps, sometimes the lamp casings were provided with a connection lid, which however required a special design of the casing. Fitting the lamp with suspension chains or nylon threads, which measure was also already taken to this end, likewise involves great inconvenience and additional expenditure of means.

It is the object of the invention to solve these problems in a simple manner.

To attain this object, the present invention provides a bracket type mounting device of the initially specified type which comprises a plate member having an elongated slot and serving in the mounted state of the lamp casing as a washer located between the lamp casing and the head of said fixing screw, a bracket portion having an aperture and depending at an incline from one end of said plate portion and terminating in a hook portion from which said lamp can be suspended prior to final mounting to facilitate cable connection, said elongated slot being wider than the diameter of the shaft of said fixing screw but narrower than the diameter of the head thereof, the aperture in said bracket portion communicating with said elongated slot and being of slightly larger diameter than said screw head to permit said aperture to be passed over said screw head and said elongated slot to be brought into engagement with the shaft of said fixing screw.

Advantageously, a shoulder is formed at the end of the plate portion merging into the bracket portion, the elongated slot transversing said shoulder before opening into the wider aperture in said bracket portion.

The aperture may be closed on all sides or open on one side of the bracket portion or even extend all through the bracket portion and the hook portion and then open at the free end of the latter.

A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

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FIG. 1a is a section taken on the line A--A of FIG. 1b;

FIG. lb is a top plan view of a bracket type mounting device according to the invention;

FIG. 10 is an end view from the right of FIG. la;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view from below of the mounting device shifted onto the shaft of its associated fixing screw;

FIG. 3 is a section showing the bracket type mounting device supported by the fixing screw screwed into a ceiling, a lamp casing being suspended from the mounting device to facilitate cable connection prior to securing the lamp casing to the ceiling;

FIG. 4 is a similar view showing the lamp casing secured to the ceiling, with a washer portion of the mounting device interpos'itioned between the head of the fixing screw and the sheet metal of the lamp casing, and

FIG. 5 is a similar view showing the lamp casing secured to the lower end of a pendulum.

With reference now to the drawings and more particularly to FIGS. la, 1b, 1c and 2, a bracket type mounting device proposed by the present invention comprises a plate portion 2 which preferably forms at one of its ends a shoulder 3 from which a bracket portion 4 depends at an incline and terminates in an upwardly bent hook portion 5.

The plate portion 2 has an elongated slot 6 for receiving the shaft of a fixing screw 1, as can be seen from FIG. 2. The width of the elongated slot 6 is such as to prevent the head of the fixing screw 1 from passing therethrough, while the shaft of the fixing screw 1 is freely movable therein as long as the fixing screw 1 is not tightened.

An aperture 7 is provided in the bracket portion 4 and communicates with the elongated slot 6. This aperture 7 is wider than the slot 6 and of slightly larger diameter than the head of the fixing screw 1 to enable the mounting device to be passed over the head of the fixing screw 1 previously screwed into, but not tightened to, a support such as a ceiling or the lower end of a lamp pendulum suspended from a ceiling. After the mounting device has been passed over the screw head it can be easily manipulated to engage the shaft of the fixing screw 1 by its longitudinal slot 6.

As shown in FIG. 3, the aforedescribed arrangement is particularly advantageous in the case of installing a lamp casing 8 requiring the electrical connection to be established from the side later to be fixed to the support which in the illustrated example is a ceiling 10. The lamp casing 8 is suspended from the hook portion 5 of the bracket type mounting device supported by the fixing screw 1 which is screwed into the ceiling 10 but not tightened thereto in order to receive the mounting device in the above-described manner. With the lamp casing 8 being thus suspended, where formerly two electricians were required to do the installation work, now only one electrician is required who with one hand can handle a tool such as a screw driver 9 and with his other hand locate a cable 11 to be connected to the lamp casing 8.

After the electrical connection has been established, the lamp casing 8 is unhooked and the mounting device disengaged from the fixing screw. Subsequently, a central opening 13, (FIGURES 4 and 5) in the lamp casing is passed over the screw head, the mounting device is applied between the sheet metal of the lamp casing and the screw head in the manner described and then the fixing screw is tightened so that when the lamp casing 8 is secured to the ceiling 10, the plate portion 2 of the mounting device is located between the sheet metal of the lamp casing 8 and the head of the fixing screw 1 (FIG. 4) to act as a washer.

As to the use and application of the mounting device, the same applies also to the modification illustrated in FIG. 5 which shows the lamp casing 8 mounted at the lower end of a lamp pendulum 12.

Returning to FIG. 2, it will become clear that the mounting device is prevented by the shoulder 3 from unintentionally sliding off the fixing screw 1, since the aperture 7 does not extend through the shoulder 3 and thus the head of the fixing screw would abut against the latter if the mounting device were shifted in this direction.

I claim:

1. A bracket type mounting device comprising a fixing screw having a head and a threaded shaft for securing a lamp casing to a ceiling, a plate member having first and second end portions and an elongated slot, said plate member being adapted to function as a washer located between the head of said fixing screw and a lamp casing in the mounted position thereof, a bracket portion having an aperture, said bracket portion being integrally joined to the second end portion of said plate member by a shoulder portion defining an angle of less than 180 with said plate member, said bracket portion terminating in an integral hook portion from which a lamp casing is adapted to be suspended prior to the final mounting thereof thereby facilitating the connection of lamp cables incident to a mounting of the casing, a portion of said elongated slot extending across said shoulder portion and merging with said aperture, said elongated slot and the portion thereof across said shoulder portion being wider than the diameter of the shaft of said fixing screw but narrower than the diameter of said head, and the aperture in said bracket portion being of a size slightly larger than the diameter of said screw head to permit said aperture to be passed over said screw head and said elongated slot to be brought into engagement with the shaft of said fixing screw whereby upon the tightening of said fixing screw inadvertent removal of said screw from said slot by relative movement in a first direction is prevented by contact between said screw head and said shoulder portion to either side of said elongated slot portions.

2. A bracket type mounting device comprising a fixing screw having a head and a threaded shaft for securing a lamp casing to a ceiling, a plate member having first and second end portions and an elongated slot, said plate member being adapted to function as a washer located between the head of said fixing screw and a lamp casing in the mounted position thereof, a bracket portion having an aperture, said bracket portion being integrally joined to the second end portion of said plate member by a shoulder portion defining an angle of less than 180 with said plate member, said bracket portion terminating in an integral hook portion from which a lamp casing is adapted to be suspended prior to the final mounting thereof thereby facilitating the connection of lamp cables incident to a mounting of the casing, a portion of said elongated slot extending across said shoulder portion and merging with said aperture, said elongated slot and the portion thereof across said shoulder portion being wider than the diameter of the shaft of said fixing screw but narrower than the diameter of said head, and the aperture in said bracket portion being of a size slightly larger than the diameter of said screw head to permit said aperture to be passed over said screw head and said elongated slot to be brought into engagement with the shaft of said fixing screw whereby upon the tightening of said fixing screw inadvertent removal of said screw from said slot by relative movement in a first direction is prevented by contact between said screw head and said shoulder portion to either side of said elongated slot portions, and an end of said elongated slot opposite said aperture terminating in a closed slot portion in the first end portion of said plate member whereby inadvertent removal of said screw from said slot by relative movement in a second direction opposite said first direction is prevented by contact between said shaft and said closed slot portion.

3. A bracket type mounting device comprising a fixing screw having a head and a threaded shaft for securing a lamp casing to a ceiling, a plate member having first and second end portions and an elongated slot, said plate member being adapted to function as a washer located between the head of said fixing screw and a lamp casing in the mounted position thereof, a bracket portion having an aperture, said bracket portion being integrally joined to the second end portion of said plate member by a shoulder portion defining an angle of generally with said plate member, said bracket portion terminating in an integral U-shaped hook portion having an end directed toward said first end portion of said plate member, said bracket portion defining an angle of greater than 90 with said plate member, a portion of said elongated slot extending across said shoulder portion and merging with said aperture, said elongated slot and the portion thereof across said shoulder portion being wider than the diameter of the shaft of said fixing screw but narrower than the diameter of said head, and the aperture in said bracket portion being of a size slightly larger than the diameter of said screw head to permit said aperture to be passed over said screw head and said elongated slot to be brought into engagement with the shaft of said fixing screw whereby upon the tightening of said fixing screw inadvertent removal of said screw from said slot by relative movement in a first direction is prevented by contact between said screw head and said shoulder portion to either side of said elongated slot portion.

4. The bracket type mounting device as defined in claim 3 wherein an end of said elongated slot opposite said aperture terminates in a closed slot portion in the first end portion of said plate member whereby inadvertent removal of said screw from said slot by relative movement in a second direction opposite said first direction is prevented by contact between said shaft and said closed slot portion.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 236,865 1/81 Walker 248301 877,453 1/08 Quinn 248301 1,847,306 3/32 Robertson 2483 17 2,286,118 6/42 Sleeth 248-5 8 2,687,867 8/54 Wolar 248343 2,736,528 2/56 LeBrock 2483 17 2,891,752 6/59 Genter 2487 1 2,982,508 5/61 Larsen et al. 248205 2,990,153 6/6 1 Wolar 248343 CLAUDE A. LE ROY, Primary Examiner. 

1. A BRACKET TYPE MOUNTING DEVICE COMPRISING A FIXING SCREW HAVING A HEAD AND A THREADED SHAFT FOR SECURING A LAMP ACASING TO A CEILING, A PLATTE MEMBER HAVING FIRST AND SECOND END PORTIONS AND AN ELONGATED SLOT, SAID PLATE MEMBER BEING ADATPED TO FUNCTION AS A WASHERR LOCATED BETWEEN THE HEAD OF SAID FIXING SCREW AND A LAMP CASING IN THE MOUNTED POSITION THEREOF, A BRACKET PORTION HAVING AN APERTURE, SAID BRACKET PORTIONN BEING INTEGRALLY JOINNED TO THE SECOND END PORTION BEING INTEGRALLY BY A SHOULDER PORTION DEFINING AN ANGLE OF LESS THAN 180* WITH SAID PLATE MEMBER, SAID BRACKET PORTION TERMINATING IN AN INTEGRAL HOOK PORTION FROM WHICH A LAMP CASING IS ADAAPTED TO BE SUSPENDED PRIOR TO THE FINAL MOUNTING THEREOF THEREBY FACILITATING THE CONNECTION OF LAMP CABLES INCIDENT TO A MOUNTING OF THE CASING, A PORTION OF SAID ELONGATED SLOT EXTENDING ACROSS SAID SHOUULDER PORTION AND MERGING WITH SAID APERTURE, SAID ELONGATEDD SLOT AND THE PORTION THEREOF ACROSS SAID SHOULDER PORTION BEING WIDER THAN THE DIAMETER OF THE SHAFT OF SAID FIXING SCREW BUT NARROWER THAN THE DIAMETER OF SAID HEAD, AND THE APERTURE IN SAID BRACKET PORTION BEING OF A SIZE SLIGHTLY LARGER THAN THE DIAMETER OF SAID SCREW HEAD TO PERMIT SAID APERTURE TO BE PASSED OVER SAID SCREW HEAD AND SAID ELONGATED SLOT TO BE BROUGHTT INTO ENGAGEMENT WITH THE SHAFT OF SAID FIXING SCREW WHEREBY UPON THE TIGHTENING OF SAID FIXING SCREW INADVERTENT REMOVAL OF SAID SCREW FROM SAID SLOT BY RELATIVE MOVEMENT IN A FIRST DIRECTIONN IS PREVENTED BY CONTACT BETWEEN SAID SCREW HEAD AND SAID SHOULDER PORTIONN TO EITHER SIDE OF SAID ELONGATED SLOT PORTIONS. 